Tory Timeline

(Some important dates in the history of loyalism and Toryism in early Albany history)


1754-63 ---- The French and Indian War raises issues that would divide the people of colonial Albany

1765 ---- Albany buys the fort and other military buildings from the royal government

1766 ---- Sons of Liberty orchestrate local opposition to the Stamp Act

1771 ---- The Albany Gazette, Albany's first newspaper provides a forum for Anglo-identified ideas

1775 ---- First public meeting of the Albany Committee of Correspondence

1776 ---- Tories arrested for drinking to the King's health

1778 ---- Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies begin meeting in Albany

October 22, 1779 ---- Act of Attainder condemns fifty-nine New York Tories to death

1780 ---- New York State Legislature first meets in Albany

1782-83 ---- General George Washington visits Albany twice

November 1783 ---- British evacuate New York City - taking thousands of loyalists and refugee slaves with them

1790 ---- Albany population reaches 3,498




notes

This online timeline begins to include some dates important to understanding loyalism and loyalists in the early history of the Albany community. It also facilitates access to the substantive parts of the site.

The Act of Attainder, or Confiscation Act denounced the principal Tories in the state. It named fifty-nine individuals who were banished from the state, condemned them to death without trial if caught, and called for the confiscation of their property. On the list was Albany resident Abraham C. Cuyler - the last mayor under the British. Defined. See, Gary Monti, Prejudice and Pressure: Divided Loyalties, and the New York Act of Attainder of October 22, 1779 (MA thesis, Adelphi, 1985).

Other timelines may follow.



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first posted: 2/25/04